Just as he was about to drift into sleep, he heard frantic shouting from outside. It sounded like men barking at each other.

  It wasn't good, but what was worse was a crack of laser fire soon after. Just a single shot, but it was enough to jump start John into action.

  He frantically pushes himself off the ground and swings to one of the side exits of the building to the obelisk interior.

  Standing apart from each other, spaced by a brass statue of an unknown lady, he sees two people aiming guns at each other shouting, along with a few other people surrounding or hiding.

  “YOU PUT THAT FAWKIN ‘TING DOWN YA HEAR ME?!”

  Gary screams at Crosby, his guns on full display along with an actual rifle aimed towards Crosby.

  “NOT UNTIL YOU PUT THAT THING DOWN. I HAVEN'T GONE THROUGH ALL THIS SHIT TO BE BEAT NOW.” Crosby yells back, the laser glock from before drawing at Gary. The two breathe heavily.

  John yells at them both to try to ease tensions.

  “HEY! BOTH OF YOU, STOP!” They both look at him, weapons still drawn at each other. John looks to Gary first as he explains.

  “Gary, that is Crosby. He is one of us. A new resistance member from my old workplace.” He tries to turn to Crosby but Gary pipes up.

  “JOHN! WHAT THE FAWK ARE YA DOING HERE?! YOU SAID YOU WERE GONE TO WORK?!”

  “I DID!” John yells back, his fight or flight response still kicking. “And I was chased down by a dude with golden eyes who WE.” He points to Crosby. “KILLED. I told you I would bring good men, remember?!”

  “OH WATEVA!” Gary yells, looking back to Crosby. He lowers his voice as he addresses him. “Put the gun down, son.”

  Crosby nods, still hesitant, but compliant. He slowly lowers the pistol and stands idling, observing what happens next. Gary power walks over to John and grabs him by the collar, pulling him close and looking up at his face. “Ya got ‘sum fawkin explaining to do Son. Did ya bring Jimbo ‘witcha?”

  “Yes.” John replies. Gary pushes him away and turns around to yell at the fake sky. “OH WHAT THE FAWK! WHY THE FAWK ISN'T ANYONE TELLING SHIT TO ME?!”

  He turns again to John and pushes him down to the ground rather easily given John's dysfunctional leg. “I coulda killed him all because of you, ‘Jawn. This was totally fawkin’ avoidable.”

  Gary kicks his crutch aside like an asshole. “Sort yourself out and den’ report back to me why you're so early. I'm too pissed off right now.”

  Gary stops just before the side entrance, his hand on the door knob. “Did Jimbo get the gas at least?!”

  John crutch is out of reach, he turns his head back to answer Gary. “Yeah he did, you fucking dick.”

  “Wonderful.” Gary replies, opening the door, slamming behind him after finishing. “Look like I gotta chew his ass too.”

  The inside of the obelisk was a little louder than usual; it sounds almost like a trickle of water. He checks his pants. Good, no accidents. He looks at Crosby and notices some water bouncing off his hat. He looks up to the roof, and sees a tiny hole. Ahh. That must've been the gunshot.

  Crosby approaches John and kicks his crutch back to him and offers a hand. John takes it and stands up; Crosby patting his arm.

  “Big boss I assume?” He asks.

  “Yes.” John replies. “I should've introduced you two but you both disappeared.”

  “You've been through the ringer John. Can't be perfect all the time.” Crosby argues. “Go find Jimbo or something. He's probably better at the whole emotional talk thing than me. I'm gonna go explore outside for a while.”

  “Wait, Crosby!” John yells just as he walks away, realizing something horrible. “Did… did you turn the gun on?”

  Crosby unholsters it, giving it a look. “I suppose I did. Oopsie daisy.” He turns it off and goes back to the exit. “No point moping over it. It doesn't tend to do people favors.”

  John watches Crosby as he exits into the rain. He is split between finding Amy, Gary or Jimbo. He chooses Jimbo, because he anticipates it will be the easiest conversation.

  John goes to the gas caches and waits for Jimbo to appear. After a minute he hears a door open on the opposite of the obelisk. Soon enough, Jimbo appears from behind the building. John waves to him, and Jimbo waves back, holding a big LPG tank across both his arms.

  He dumps it besides John and asks him. “Here to give me a hand?”

  “I'd be useless, sorry man.” John says. “But I do have a question for you.” Jimbo stands up straight and strokes his beard. “Shoot.”

  “Actually I have multiple.” John remembers. “Have you seen Gary?”

  “Nope.” Jimbo replies.

  “He's going to grill your ass next time he sees you.” John informs. “He wants people to let him know as soon as they're back.”

  “That's fair enough.” Jimbo says rather unsurprised, and oddly relieved. John asks his next question. “I had a conversation with Amy earlier. I've never actually noticed that a lot of the people here are super clean. How do we even get those products?”

  Jimbo laughs at the question and folds his arms. “Oh you're funny John. I steal it, how else would we get it?”

  “Yeah I get that.” John replies. “But, like… washing machines and running water? Surely that's too much to just steal?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Jimbo smiles and looks to the floor, moving his hands to his hips. “It's a… uh, a spring located near here. Don't tell anyone though. It's one of— the last things left from what this place used to be.”

  A spring? How the Hell does a spring make water? The question confused John but he lets it slide, wanting to make Jimbo happy.

  “I feel you man.” He says, looking around to the depictions of what has been lost strewn across the obelisk ceiling. The dark blue skies, fake green hills and fake bright sun.

  “Maybe I can join you on one of your supply runs sometime.”

  Jimbo giggles again and places his hand on John's shoulder, preparing to end the conversation and resume work. “I appreciate the offer man but I'm gonna have to say no on that one. Take care.”

  He walks past and grabs an empty canister, then walks off back to the outside world.

  “That's weird.” John thinks, not used to being turned down like that. “Oh well.” He says, now deciding he has to find Amy. His best guess is the computer basement, and so he goes there first.

  He returns to the inside and navigates through to the main hall and into the basement. Each step is easier as he gets used to his leg not working, despite running on fumes at the moment.

  Inside, it is soaked in blue yet dim. It takes a second for him to spot her silhouette outlined by a computer monitor.

  His approach is obvious from the clack of his crutch. He sits down next to her and looks at her screen. “What's going on?”

  Amy continues staring at the screen. “Learning. Looking through files stored on the servers here. It's very sad. It's a shame we can't connect them to the contentsphere.”

  “Yeah we can't risk being located.” John replies, his stomach reminding him of the pistol shot into the ceiling.

  Amy turns to him as she clicks on another image. “No it isn't that. All of this hardware is too old to be compatible. It could be connected to the internet, but the internet is dead now.”

  John looks at the image, one of a tree and grass with a path going into the background. It helps elevate his worry surrounding the pistol.

  “That looks nice. An— wait, isn't the internet and the contentsphere the same thing?”

  “No, not really.” Amy replies, looking for a new image.

  “The internet was replaced with the contentsphere after the rise of AI. It was flooded with bots and all the real people were drowned out. It was also hard to regulate apparently, and so the contentsphere was launched by a company I still can't find.”

  Amy continues to navigate the images while John tries to understand the history. “This is something we should already know, and yet we don't.” He replies, looking around the dark basement. They both keep their voices down to not distract the others.

  Amy opens a new folder in the gallery named ‘Best Ones’.

  She turns to John as she prepares to show him something. “Yeah. It's sad no one knows this stuff. It's like… the information is out there but no one cares enough to go find it. But tell me show you this…”

  She tells him, turning back to her monitor and opening an image. John gets closer to have a good look as Amy tells him about it.

  “This one is my favorite. It's name is called… Bliss.”

  The image was a four-by-three ratio. The sky was a nice deep blue with fluffy clouds blanketing some of the atmosphere.

  Distant mountains dotted the background in the middle right of the image, but the centre subject was a bright, luscious, lime green hill that sloped to the left like an angel's grace. Tiny yellow plants dotted the lower third of the image. Too small to see anything in particular. The grass on the lower third was a bit darker, longer, and flatter too. It was a beautiful image. A comfortable image. It brings a thought to John's mind.

  “Wow. That's beautiful Amy. Do you think that place still exists?”

  “No.” Amy replied sadly. “Even if it does I don't want to see what has happened to it.”

  John looks at her, and she still looks at the screen. “Do you know where the photo was taken?”

  Amy gives him a quick glance as she replies.

  “Oh, uh, I think it said between Napa and Sonoma country, California. But that would be Oregon-California now I think.”

  “I'll keep that in mind.” John tells her, rising from his seat about to move to the exit. “I need to talk to Gary now. If you need anything I'm not far.” Amy waves to him with her focus still on research. “I know, see ya!”

  He climbs the stairs as if it was the summit of Mount Everest, not that he knows about the mountain. As he gets back to the main hall, he is happy to remember he has climbed more stairs to get to Gary's office.

  Oh goodie.

  With much restless effort, he gets to the top. The lack of proper rest is really beginning to take a toll. As he enters Gary's office, he sees him sipping on a drink. “May I come in?” He asks.

  “I’d sure hope so.” Gary replies, putting his legs on the table.

  John takes a seat, even if being comfortable is impossible right now. “I apologize for the situation from before. From now on you'll be the first I report to when I return from deployments.”

  Gary gives him a weird look. One of being taken off guard.

  “Well… shit. That's great! Apology accepted!” He tells him.

  John is satisfied with the resolution. John wrangles his dead leg to be upright, and puts his good one on top. “It's gonna be a while before I can go on deployment again. But I am keen to help out once I can.”

  Gary takes a big sip of his drink and puts the cup down. “Music to my ears boy. Now, tell me what the Hell happened out there.”

  John clears his throat to explain. “Well, on the way to work I dropped Jimbo off. You know that. But, when I got to work I was met by the same dude with gold eyes who was at my apartment block and got that furry dude.”

  Gary nods his head. “Ahh. That'd do it. So did you kick his ass?”

  “I almost did.” John answers, feeling a spike of energy as he recollects his epic battle. “I got in one of the MeKSUTs and tried to smash the shit out of him. Got a couple good blows but then the thing died. Just as he was about to shoot me, Crosby came and saved me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.”

  “Did he kill him?” Gary asks, taking another sip, invested in the story.

  “I think so. Metal pipes cracking the skull tend to do that.” John answers, a smile on his face despite wanting to just collapse on the floor and be done with today.

  “Lovely to hear.” Gary tells John, getting up from his seat. “One problem though. That pistol glowed and shot lasers. And he turned the thing on.”

  “Yeah, I realized that too.” John tells him, tracking Gary's movements, who replies. “I trust your judgment. But I saw him go outside, you see. Now, if he isn't back ‘ere within the next couple hours, your ass is gonna get him for me. Is that clear?”

  “Of course.” John replies, now wanting to just leave the room and go lie down. Gary can tell and allows for it. “Good to know. You're dismissed.” John realizes he didn't tell Amy the story. Ahh fuck it, it's too late. He'll tell her tomorrow when they're not busy or something.

  He’s also finding Gary more understandable while being delirious.

  Funny. Hopefully that tracks tomorrow morning too.